Spring clips for tubular furniture

ABSTRACT

OUTDOOR, CASUAL AND PATIO FURNITURE IS FREQUENTLY MADE FROM TUBULAR FRAMES HAVING INTERWOVEN OR CROSSED STRAPS WHICH ARE SECURED AT THEIR ENDS TO THE FRAME AND ARE STRETCHED ACROSS THE FURNITURE PIECE. DURING THE LIFE OF THE FURNITURE PIECE, THEREFORE, IT IS USUALLY THE PRACTICE TO REPLACE THE STRAPS ONE OR MORE TIMES. DESIRABLE MEANS OF SECURING STRAPS TO TUBULAR FURNITURE ENTAIL THE USE OF FASTENERS OR CLIPS. PRIOR ART CLIPS, WHILE AFFORDING A PARTICULARLY USEFUL MEANS OF ATTACHING STRAPS TO FURNITURE PIECES, ARE NEVERTHELESS SUBJECT TO CERTAIN DISADVANTAGES. THE CLIPS PROVIDED HEREIN OVERCOME THESE PROBLEMS. THE FUNCTION VERY WELL ON SQUARE TUBULAR FRAMES, AND IN ADDITION THE   SURROUNDING STRAP NEED NOT BE WOUND AROUND TO THE DEGREE NECESSARY WITH PRIOR ART CLIPS.

0a. 19, 1971 AIT; RANKIN 3,613,184

SPRING CLIPS FOR TUBULAR FURNITURE Filed July 28. 1970 INVENTOR. ARNAND T RANKIN H15 ATTORNEY United States Patent Office Patented Oct. 19, 1971 SPRING CLIPS FOR TUBULAR FURNITURE Armand T. Rankin, Louisville, Ky. (1614 Heddin Court, New Albany, Ind. 47150) Filed July 28, 1970, Ser. No. 58,880 Int. Cl. A47c 31/00 U.S. Cl. 24-265 C 4 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Outdoor, casual and patio furniture is frequently made from tubular frames having interwoven or crossed straps which are secured at their ends to the frame and are stretched across the furniture piece. During the life of the furniture piece, therefore, it is usually the practice to replace the straps one or more times. Desirable means of securing straps to tubular furniture entail the use of fasteners or clips. Prior art clips, while affording a particularly useful means of attaching straps to furniture pieces, are nevertheless subject to certain disadvantages. The clips provided herein overcome these problems. They function very well on square tubular frames, and in addition the surrounding strap need not be wound around to the degree necessary with prior art clips.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to the type of fastener which is in the form of a spring clip for securing a strap to a tubular member of furniture.

Outdoor, casual and patio chairs, screens and dividers, rockers and chaises, metal cots and the like are frequently made from tubular frames having interwoven or crossed straps which are secured at their ends to the frame and are stretched across the furniture piece to serve as backs, seats, other body supports or other covering. The furniture frames generally are durable, but the cloth or plastic straps are subject to wear, weathering and tearing. During the life of the furniture piece, therefore, it is usually the practice to replace the straps one or more times. Moreover, as pointed out in 3,084,739, it is preferred to secure a connection between the member of tubular furniture and the crossing straps without drilling holes or in any way weakening the frame. It is also helpful to be able to replace straps without using tools. In addition it is difiicult to reuse screws which are used ini tially in many pieces of furniture. They may be rusted, or replacement straps may not have holes spaced for a tight fit on the particular furniture piece to be recovered. If a new hole is made in the strap without using an eyelet, the strap material soon tears.

It can be seen from the foregoing that the most desirable means of securing straps to tubular furniture entail the use of fasteners or clips. An especially effective spring clip is that described in 3,084,739. This clip is virtually cylindrical and is made of a resilient metal. It is curved, having an are greater than a semi-circle with spaced opposing side edges, It is thus made to slip snugly over and partially embrace the tubular frame member.

The clips of 3,084,739, while affording a particularly useful means of attaching straps to furniture pieces, are nevertheless subject to certain disadvantages. It would be desirable, for instance, if the clips could be used on square tubular furniture. In addition unless the strap is wound around so that there is some overlapping, as shown in FIG. 7 of 3,084,739, there will eventually be some retrograde movement or slipping. The clips provided herein overcome both of these problems. They function very well on square tubular frames, and in addition the surrounding strap need not be wound around to the degree necessary with prior art clips.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The clip provided herein for securing straps to tubular furniture members, being an improvement of the clip of 3,084,739, is accordingly similar thereto. Thus it is in the form of a cylindrical tube with a longitudinal opening along its entire length. This opening forrns two uniformly complementary edges circumferentially spaced from each other. The opening forms a clip which is C-shaped in cross-section. Hence it has two C-shaped ends, In the clip of 3,084,739, spaced inwardly from one of the complementary edges, a series of spaced triangular prongs are struck out extending toward the nearest edge. According to the practice of this invention rather than prongs positioned apart from each other and spaced from the edge, the two C-shaped ends, one of the complementary edges, or both, are in the form of serrate margina.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION One of the advantages of the clip of this invention is that the clip of 3,084,739 does not function well on tubular members which have square cross sections. As illustrated in FIG. 7 the prongs 2 of this clip 4 are not in contact with the tubular member 6. Accordingly strap 8 eventually will pull off the clip which it is wrapped around at 10. Such is not the case with the clip of this invention. This and other advantages will perhaps be more apparent from a consideration of the invention in the light of the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary perspective view of a seat or a back member of a piece of furniture.

FIG. 2, FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 are perspective views of three embodiments of the clip of this invention.

FIG. 5 and FIG. 6 are end views showing two different tubular members with the spring clip of the invention and a strap secured thereby.

FIG. 7 is an end view of a prior art clip.

FIG. 8 is a fragmentary perspective view of a fourth embodiment of the invention.

As indicated hereinbefore the clips of this invention are metal resilient clips by which the ends of straps are secured to tubular furniture frames. Three different clips are illustrated in FIGS. 2, 3 and 4. It will be apparent that the clips 20 are substantially in the form of hollow tubes or cylinders except that they have longitudinal openings 22 along their entire lengths forming two uniformly complementary edges 24 and 26. Edges 24 and 26 are circumferentially spaced from each other so that the clip when viewed from an end as in FIG. 5 is C-shaped. Clip 20 thus has the two complementary edges and also two C-shaped ends.

The reason the clips of this invention are so effective in holding straps is due to the placement of barbs or saw teeth 30. The barbs or saw teeth 30 are so struck that an entire edge 26 is serrated as shown in FIG. 2. An equally effective clip has both of the C-shaped ends serrated as illustrated in FIG. 3. Another clip, as shown in FIG. 4, has only edge 24 free of serrations or adjacent barbs so that the end portion of strap 8 can be folded inside the clip.

The use of the clips of this invention will now be described. With the end of the strap folded over the smooth edge 26 of the clip, it will be applied to a piece of furniture as shown in FIG. 5. In this embodiment strap 8 is wrapped around edge 24 of clip 20. The clip is then snapped on furniture member 6, the clip being of such size that it tightly surrounds or embraces tubular member 6. The strap is then wrapped around over clip 20 ar shown in FIG. 5 to be stretched to the opposite side of the furniture frame. It can be seen that barbs 30 effectively resist slipping, or retrograde movement. With the barbs along this longitudinal edge 26, as shown in FIG. 2, in addition to better holding, the barbs serve as tightening 3 aids by biting in to prevent slipping of clip when applying webbing. This provides a means of preventing the webbing from sagging as with prior art clips.

Considering now tubular furniture in which members have square cross sections, a prior art clip is shown in FIG. 7. This clip 4 surrounds furniture member 6 with a strap 8 wrapped around. it as previously described. However as can be seen prong 2 is ineffective. Its placement is such that the clip does not remain on square tubular furniture.

The clip of this invention is illustrated in FIG. 6 where again furniture member 6 and a strap 8 are shown. However in this instance the barbs of clip 20 bite into the furniture member in three places, 21, 23 and 25. Retrograde movement is thus greatly resisted. The clips shown in FIG. 6 can be either that of FIG. 3 or FIG. 4. Nevertheless even the clip of FIG. 2 bites into the square furniture member 6 along a line at 25.

A particularly desirable variation of the invention is shown in FIG. 8. This embodiment involves a change in the C-shaped ends. These two ends are tapered inwardly. As a result barbs or serrations 30 are not one behind the other, but rather are in progressive or gradational alignment with each one, from edge 26, positioned beyond the one in front of it, progressing away from their tips or prongs. This clip is especially good when the tubular member is made of a very soft metal. Should the first prong cut a groove in the metal the other prongs will not ride in this groove, but rather will bite into other portions of the tube surface.

This invention thus provides a particularly effective spring clip for tubular furniture, and one which is superior to those used heretofore. For example if the tubular furniture member is dented or otherwise distorted in shape through misuse or rough handling, it may not be completely round. In such instances prior art clips will fit somewhat like they do on square members so that the barbs will not make contact with the metal surface. It is understood, of course, that various uses of the clips will be obvious to those skilled in the art. For example the furniture member need not be hollow. There is no reason solid members having circular or square cross sections 4 cannot be used. Such ramifications are deemed to be within the scope of this invention.

What is claimed is:

1. In a spring clip for securing straps to tubular furniture members, the clip with a strap around it and a portion of the strap therebeneath enclasping the tubular member, the clip being of resilient metal and of hollow tubular form with a longitudinal opening along its entire length forming two uniformly complementary edges circumferentially spaced from each other and two generally C-shaped ends, improved means resisting clip rotation in square as well as round tubular members due to tension on the enveloping straps comprising a series of barbs struck marginally along one of the ecomplementary edges and along the C-shaped ends, the barbs being adjacent and directed inwardly as viewed from an end to form serrate margins adapted to bite into the tubular member.

2. The clip of claim 1 wherein the series of barbs is along one of the complementary edges to form a serrate margin along the edge adapted to bite into the tubular member.

3. The clip of claim 1 wherein the series of barbs is along the two C-shaped ends to form serrate ends adapted to bite into the tubular member.

4. The clip of claim 3 wherein the two C-shaped ends are tapered inwardly positioning the barbs in gradational alignment.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,099,660 6/1914 Mead -402 X 3,084,739 4/1963 Jaworski 160402 3,142,880 8/1964 Davies 160'-4O 2, X

FOREIGN PATENTS 267,931 6/1966 Australia 24265 C DONALD A. GRIFFIN, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 

